Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren – All the latest professional wrestling news, gossip and occasional opinion direct to your mailbox.
WGN is read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from all around the world.

6/13 Smackdown/ECW house show results from Binghamton, NY: John Morrison over Mike Knox; The Hart Dynasty over Evan Bourne & Hurricane Helms; Ricky Steamboat over Drew McIntyre; Great Khali over Dolph Ziggler; Tommy Dreamer over Jack Swagger; and C.M. Punk over Rey Mysterio & Jeff Hardy in a three-way.

First match back for Helms in some time. There was a strange finish with Smith pinning Helms following a lariat. Steamboat-McIntre went 20 minutes mostly mat-based chain wrestling. Crowd was dead until the finish with Steamboat winning with a high body cross from the top rope.
Dreamer-Swagger was said to be very good. The main event blew the undercard out of the water. We received two reports from readers saying this was the among the best match they have ever seen live. Show drew 4000.

The 6/13 Raw show in Nimes, France were the same matches and results as Serbia. The show drew a 14,000 in an outdoor stadium for a gate of $850,000.

The Smackdown/ECW crew run this afternoon at Giant Center in Hershey, PA. TV this coming week has the tri-branded three-hour Raw from Charlotte with Tommy Dreamer vs. Christian for the ECW title; Randy Orton vs. Triple H vs. John Cena vs. Big Show in a fatal four-way for the now vacant WWE title; and C.M. Punk vs. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy for the World title. The Smackdown/ECW tapings are Tuesday from the Coliseum in Roanoke, VA with Evan Bourne vs. Mark Henry planned for ECW.

An update on Rey Mysterio. The issues between him and the company are financial, either related to a new contract or his merchandise. The rumors about him giving notice were overblown although if the money matters aren’t resolved one would assume he won’t remain with the company in the long-term. He was back working house shows this weekend.

The Charlotte Observer at http://tinyurl.com/ngp62a has a story on Randy Orton to push Raw on Monday. He said he wants to be out of the business before his mid-40s as he doesn’t want to be one of those guys still wrestling into his 50s and 60s. He also talks about wanting to do some movies.

Mike Mooneyham at http://tinyurl.com/n2b88u has a story looking at how Jim Mitchell was recently snubbed by FCW owner Steve Kerin when he traveled to Tampa for what he believed was a tryout for the WWE. Keirn is not commenting on the story and probably never will.

The 6/22 Raw in Green Bay that is scheduled to run ad free was at the request of USA to help hotshot Monday night ratings. Essentially the network will give up around $500,000 in revenue. The idea is that viewers will be less inclined to tune out with no ad breaks.

Santino Morella and Vladimir Kozlov attended the Tampa Bay Rays game on Thursday night. Both were shown on the video score board and Kozlov threw the victory switch that turns the stadium lights orange after a Rays win.

Jerry Lawler presented the New York Yankees’ CC Sabathia with a new, replica WWE Championship belt, after word got out that the players were passing around a wrestling belt to the best player following every win.
The New York Daily News at http://tinyurl.com/krhfkf has the story.

Tommy Dreamer at http://tinyurl.com/klp5ud wrote a blog talking about his ECW title win at Extreme Rules thanking a long list of people who have helped him in his career.

The WWE stock closed out the week at $13.59 on the NYSE.

TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS

6/12 house show results from St. Joseph, MO: Consequences Creed over Sheik Abdul Bashir; Awesome Kong over ODB; Eric Young over Jay Lethal; Suicide over Christopher Daniels and Homicide in a 3 way match for the X Division title; Abyss over Matt Morgan; and Beer Money over Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner.

6/13 house show results from Council Bluffs, IA: Homicide over Eric Young; Awesome Kong over ODB; Daniels over Matt Morgan; Suicide over Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed; Abyss over Sheik Bashir; and Beer Money Inc. over Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner.

For this show we’re told they used half a 9000-seat arena and drew around 300.

The weekend tour wraps up today at the Firstier Events Center in Kearney, NE. We’re looking for reports from the show to [email protected].

Abyss read the 6pm weather on Friday for KQTV News out of St. Joseph, MO in a very late push for the house show that night.

OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

Media outlets in Japan are reporting Mitsuharu Misawa’s death on Saturday night as a heart attack after being given a back suplex. The truth is nobody will ever know for sure as laws are different in Japan and his family has requested confidentiality on his cause of death.

A national Japanese TV show covered the tragedy in real-time. The footage is online at http://tinyurl.com/nvhpf3 (Please do not watch if you think you will be offended). In what can only be described as eerie, Misawa’s death came on the same night as The Wrestler opened in Japanese theaters, so the media over there are drawing the obvious comparisons to the suggestive ending of that movie.

WWE and TNA have led the tributes to Misawa.

“On behalf of WWE, we were deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of Mitsuharu Misawa. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and fans. Misawa will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in Japan,” said John Laurinaitis, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations.

TNA released the following statement on its website: “TNA Wrestling is saddened to hear of the sudden and tragic loss of Misawa. He was respected around the world and he will be missed. We pass on our sincere condolences to his family and those who worked with him in Japan.”

Indy wrestler Chris Hero, who is on tour with NOAH in Japan wrote in his
blog: “Words cannot express how deeply shocked I am. We’re all just in utter disbelief. Stunned sadness. The moments at ringside felt an eternity. Never, in my life, have I wanted the fighting spirit to jump into someone’s being more than I wanted tonight. The fans chanted Misawa, Misawa, Misawa. They wanted their Hero to get up so f**king bad.
Just get up. Come on! You’re too tough for this. Too strong. I grabbed his boots and held onto them until they took him away. My heart goes out to his family. His students. His peers. His friends. His fans. His opponents tonight and his partner. It was a freak accident. No one is at fault.”

Zach Arnold of PuroresuPower.com wrote: “I started this site on June 20, 2000, right around the time that All Japan split up into two factions.
Misawa took the majority of the roster to form NOAH and would have a two-show event at Differ Ariake in Tokyo. At that time, it was unknown what would happen to the business. Historically in retrospect, the split didn’t really end the decline of the business. NOAH’s business declined over the last couple of years and that was solidified when Nippon TV cut ties earlier this year with Misawa. Once All Japan lost their Nippon TV deal, they were never the same. The same thing happened to NOAH. Where will the business go? I don’t know. Without TV support, it’s doomed.
Misawa was the 3rd generation ace in the industry (Rikidozan -> Baba ->
Misawa) and his death means not just the likely death of NOAH, but also a major collapse on employment in the industry. A part of every Japanese wrestling’s soul died today.”

“Misawa was a true warrior and one of my all time favorite performers.
His fighting spirit and superb psychology will be remembered as long as I will live.” — Chris Jericho

“Just read that Mitsuharu Misawa passed away while performing in Japan on Saturday night. A very sad thing to hear.” — Matt Hardy

“Shocked to hear of the passing of Mitsuharu Misawa. Was lucky enough to meet him at last year’s Tokyo Dome show. What a sad tragedy.” — Jeremy Borash

“Had some great matches with Misawa, so sad what a lost to our sport.”
— Gangrel

***

Jim Ross probably said it best in his blog today: “It’s a damn shame that the vast majority of American wrestling fans won’t give a second thought about the untimely death of ‘a Japanese wrestler.’ I encourage all fans to find DVD’s of Misawa and watch him in his prime, in the 90’s especially. If one is really serious about being a highly skilled, pro wrestler, then study the late Mitsuharu Misawa.”

For anyone looking for Misawa matches the following come highly
recommended:

Austin Aries defeated Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn to become the new ROH champ last night in New York. Before the show they had a 10-bell salute for Misawa. Ric Flair did an earlier autograph signing and later cut a promo putting over ROH before the HDNet cameras started rolling. Flair then left the building as it was known ahead of time that he couldn’t appear in the main event as a ringside enforcer due to the filming, as he just signed a WWE deal. ROH owner Cary Silkin wasn’t happy with what went down but both sides realized they were in a no-win situation. He didn’t walk out on the show as has been reported else where. Flair is still scheduled to work his remaining ROH dates in Chicago, Detroit and Toronto. At the show they also announced that Bret Hart would be coming in for the next New York City event at the Grand Ballroom on 9/26.

Atlantas Fox 5 at http://tinyurl.com/mljjwy ran a newscast report on Friday evening claiming new revelations in the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide. The station reported that the lawsuit just filed by Nancy Benoit’s parents against Dr. Phil Astin contained documents that haven’t been seen before in reference to a letter that Asitn wrote to Fayette County deputies just one day after the bodies were found. In fact, the letter was originally included in a file released in February
2008 by the Fayette County Sheriffs Office, closing the criminal investigation on Benoit, so this wasn’t a new document.

The letter revealed that Benoit went to Astin’s office at 12:30pm on 6/22, 2007 (two days before the murders) for a routine check up and had “no outstanding complaints other than his usual pain and muscular spasms.” Astin said that Benoit wanted to restart an antidepressant, Zoloft, which he had taken in the past, one per day, due to being “mildly depressed mostly secondary to his travel schedule.” Benoit noted that Nancy had been very “moody” lately and he asked about premenopausal and hormonal changes in women her age. Astin said that he explained to Benoit about hormal changes, menopause, and mood swings. Astin added that Benoit asked him to see her professionally after the July 4th holiday. He wrote: “I agreed to see her and agreed not to mention our conversation or his conversation to her. Chris stayed at our office conversing with my staff as he usually does during his visits. He signed a few autographs for some patients and left approximately 1:45pm. He did not appear distressed, anxious, nor even depressed at the time he was in the office. I told Chris as a friend I would call Nancy if he desired, but he stated I could see her later.”

About.com at http://tinyurl.com/n338sh interviewed Jesse Ventura about his book, politics, wrestling, and more. He talks in detail about Vince McMahon, steroids, deaths in wrestling, and the employee vs. independent contractor deal, but nothing new that he hasn’t espoused for the last few years: “I tried to unionize way back at WrestleMania 2. I got ratted by Hogan to Vince and I almost got fired over it. Shortly after that, I went off and filmed Predator and became a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Now Im a vested member. I get my retirement and my health benefits from them. So I dont care. I have my union. I attempted to do it way back in the mid-80s. If wrestlers are so dumb and stupid that they dont want to fight for something they should have then that is their business. Its not mine. Im not going to do it. Why should I?”

Hulk Hogan‘s autobiography My Life Outside the Ring will be released on 10/27. Promotional material for the book reads: “In 2007, while riding the massive success of his VH1 reality show, Hogan Knows Best, his son Nick was involved in a tragic car accident that left his best friend in critical condition. Then Linda, his wife, left him after 23 years of marriage, his beloved daughter Brooke blamed him for the breakup and his son went to jail. The tabloid media had a field day. When unflattering jailhouse conversations between him and his son were released to the press the tabloids were in a frenzy. The sudden turmoil and tragedy surrounding Hogan took its toll. He fell into a deep depression, seeing no way out, until one fateful phone call. In My Life Outside the Ring, Hogan will unabashedly recount these events, revealing how his new found clarity steadied him during the most difficult match of his lifeand how he emerged from the battle feeling stronger than ever before.”